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Wrong Way Round

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SFRevu’s Colleen Cahill astounds me, having elected to dive into a four book series with book three. I’m talking about Sean Williams’ The Hanging Mountains,the third book in his Books of the Cataclysm series. Which can also be read as a set up followed by a three-act quest fantasy, albeit one that combines Mad Max scenarios with Ursula K. Le Guin. But such a perspective means that Colleen came in on the dreaded “middle book.” So how did The Hanging Mountains hold up read on its own? Pretty darn good.

“This book moves fast and it quickly swept me into the complex, beautiful and deadly work that Williams has so artfully crafted. In the second chapter, the boat is attacked by a large white snakelike creature, big enough to encircle the ship in its coils. The monster is made all the more eerie by its lack of eyes, nostrils or mouth. My heart was racing through this scene and I knew I had to finish this story. If an author can do that much in less than thirty pages, imagine how good the rest of the book will be!”

Colleen admits there are better ways to read the series, but adds, “If I thought it was good, just think how much better it will be when you have the whole story.”

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Something to Crow About x 3

Three new Pyr reviews up at SFCrowsnest.

First up, Eamonn Murphy’s review of Alan Dean Foster’s Sagramanda (A Novel of Near-Future India):

“Someone once said of George Bernard Shaw that he couldn’t write a boring sentence. Alan Dean Foster can but he doesn’t write very many of them. Even when adapting less than excellent animated ”Star Trek’ scripts, he turns in a good line or two. Presenting his own plots and characters his prose is frequently divine, full of apt phrasing and neat similes. If nothing else, this book is a pleasure to read. Happily, there is something else, mostly a good plot, an interesting cast of characters festooned with hi-tech gadgets and a rich setting…”

Then Tomas L. Martin reviews Sean Williams 2nd and 3rd Books of the Cataclysm. Here’s Tomas on Book 2, The Blood Debt:

“Williams is a great writer and an even better world-builder. Comparisons can be made to China Mieville’s Bas-Lag work with its assorted weirdness and willingness to bend and break the traditional tropes of fantasy worlds. This doesn’t feel like a fantasy adventure novel typically does. Its towns, citizens, technology and magic feel significantly alien and new which is a great and welcome achievement… Overall, Sean Williams has produced that rare of gems, a fantasy book that really feels like you’re visiting a new world, rather than a rehashed version of somebody else’s milieu. The easy style and likeable banter between protagonists makes the book an enjoyable read and the plot keeps you wanting to come back for more. Expect to buy all four if you get the first!”

And here is Tomas on Book 3, The Hanging Mountains:

“Sean Williams’ impressive world-building and enjoyable style and plot surprised me, providing me with the most enjoyable fantasy reads I’ve experienced since finishing China Mieville’s The Scar…Sean Williams is writing an important series here that does a great service to the fantasy genre by encouraging it to break tradition. His powerfully creative world-building should stand as a call to arms for fantasy writers to leave the world of Tolkien-aping lands behind and really start being adventurous. Read all three of ‘The Books Of The Cataclysm’ and when the fourth is released, buy that, too. I know I will be.”

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Hugo and Chesley Awards

I am back from Japan and the Hugo Awards, where it was a great honor to accept the award for Ian McDonald. Ian won Best Novelette for “The Djinn’s Wife“, originally published in Asimov‘s July 2006 issue. “The Djinn’s Wife” is, of course, part of the future India milieu Ian created in his Hugo-nominated novel River of Gods.Pictured left is co-host George Takei, Yours Truly, and Ian’s beautiful Hugo, which featured a statue of long-running Japanese SF hero Ultraman.

Meanwhile, the evening before, I was equally honored to accept a Chesley Award on behalf of Stephan Martiniere in the category of Best Cover Illustration – Hardcover for the wonderful work he did for the cover of River of Gods.

My full convention report is here. Also, be sure to see Jay Lake’s LiveJournal for some more great pictures from the show.

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A Storytelling Machine

John DeNardo posts his SFSignal Review of Mike Resnick’s Ivory: A Legend of Past and Future.He gives it a full five stars and says, “These are the kinds of well-told stories that make reading such a pleasure… Masterful storytelling; realistic characters; wonderful dialogue.” He calls Mike “a storytelling machine” and Ivory “a thoroughly engaging read.” John compares it to Mike’s Kirinyaga,a book which is among my Top Ten favorite SF Novels of All Time, and I think that’s a good comparison. I felt when I first read Ivory that it made a good companion read with that work, and they certainly look good together on my shelf.

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Hurricane Moon is Top Pick

The Romantic Times has given Alexis Glynn Latner’s Hurricane Moon4 ½ stars and proclaimed it as “Fantastic” and “Keeper”. They say:

“Top Pick! Latner’s stunning full-length debut takes a well-worn plot, strips it bare and meticulously creates its own version. The characters are well defined; the science is imaginative but not whimsical; and the voyage is out of this world.”

Also happy to report that Hurricane Moon was named in the “What You Should Read This Year” panel at the recent ArmadilloCon and has been chosen as a book-club read of the Fandom Association of Central Texas (as was, apparently, Keeping It Real).

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They’re Here! Blade and River!

Ian McDonald’s Hugo and Clarke nominated River of Gods is now out in trade paperback. It’ll be in stores in early September, and is already listed as in stock at Amazon.com.

What’s more, Joe Abercrombie’s extraordinary fantasy debut The Blade Itself is also out. I just got my copies day before yesterday. Like River of Gods, its also on Amazon already. And Blood, Blade & Thruster magazine just posted this tremendous review. They introduce The Blade Itself in this manner: “Desperately in need of some genre fiction with character driven plot, plenty of violence, and strong anti-hero protagonists, but tired of waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish his epic Game of Thrones series?” Which is as nice an intro as I could ask for.

Reviewer Lucien Spelman goes on to say that Joe’s novel is “a fantasy novel full of enough ironic and slightly self-deprecating humor and Scorcese–esque violence to make the average hipper than thou non-fantasy reader want to learn more about the genre (my favorite kind to convert), yet filled with enough touchstones to make your average Tolkien weaned fantasy reader quite happy indeed.”

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Amazon Proclaims Brasyl "Hidden Gem"

Amazon.com has just posted their Best Books of the Year So Far: Hidden Gems. This is a mid-year round up in anticipation of their annual Best of the Year list, and, in addition to categories of fiction, nonfiction, and books for children and teens, they selected 10 “hidden gems,” books they say “don’t fit easily into the usual categories or that were just too good to leave off our lists.” And, in a category that includes both fiction and nonfiction (including books about photography, technology and meat), they chose Ian McDonald’s Brasyl,of which they further say, “Ian McDonald is hardly a hidden gem to science fiction readers by now, but with Brasyl he has proven once again that he should be reckoned as one of the finest of all our novelists. Brasyl fractures the Brazil we know into past, present, and near future in a brilliantly frenetic and spellbinding stew and a dramatic tale of character and culture.”

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High-Powered Intrigue and Action

Publishers Weekly has just weighed in on the second book in Justina Robson’s Quantum Gravity series, the hysterically (but not necessarily accurately) titled Selling Out,which does anything but that. They describe this installment as “high-powered” and say, “Robson’s mix of magical and technological elements, intrigue and action should be just the thing for paranormal and fantasy adventure readers.”

Selling Out debuts this October and sees Special Agent Lila Black, quite literally, on a mission to Hell. This being Justina Robson we are talking about, the results make you laugh, cry, think and feel.

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Chris Roberson: Channeling His Inner Teenage Girl

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Larry Ketchersid really likes Here, There & Everywhere,as he writes about on his blog, Dusk Before the Dawn.

“Chris Roberson is a fellow Texas author whom I have not yet met. I will soon seek him out and buy him a Shiner and a Tequila to discuss this and his other novels. I am always impressed when a writer pens something that is so obviously outside of their experience, and for Mr. Roberson to write from the perspective of Roxanne Bonaventure as a young girl, teen, moving through the other stages of womanhood, takes excellent powers of observation.”

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